Flanders Symphony Orchestra
The Flanders Symphony Orchestra (FSO) is one of Belgium’s leading orchestras. Composed of highly committed and passionate musicians, and led by renowned conductors, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra both commissions and performs new compositions as well as electrifying renditions of the main symphonic repertoire from the classical period onwards.
FSO was founded in 1960. Chief conductors have included David Angus, Etienne Siebens, Seikyo Kim and Jan Latham-Koenig. As of the concert season 2019-20 on, Kristiina Poska was appointed as the new chief conductor.
Thanks to its own concert series in all major venues of Flanders and Brussels, the orchestra succeeds in reaching a large and loyal audience. In addition, the orchestra is a welcome guest at international venues and festivals.
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Kristiina Poska, conductor
Award-winning conductor Kristiina Poska has held the post of Chief Conductor of Flanders Symphony Orchestra since 2019/20 season and more recently took up the post of Principal Guest Conductor of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2021/22. Having studied choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn, and orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin. Poska has been a finalist in several international competitions including the Donatella Flick, Malko (she won the audience prize) and win the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize.
Recent highlights include performances with Royal Concertgebouworkest, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, the Hallé and MDR Sinfonieorchester. Past seasons’ highlights include conducting Orchestre National de France at Festival Présences, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava at the Leoš Janáček International Music Festival, and the opening concert of the Mozart Week 2020 in Salzburg with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. Additionally, Poska worked with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Gothenburg Symphony, Estonian National Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Münchner Philharmoniker, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Niederösterreich, Camerata Salzburg, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich.
Theresa Kronthaler, mezzo-soprano
Theresa Kronthaler was born in Germany and grew up in Rome. She first studied theater and drama in London before enrolling at the prestigious Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, where she completed her studies with Prof. Renate Faltin and Prof. Julia Varady. She took part in various master classes with Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Thomas Quasthoff.
After her early debut as Prince Orlofsky at the Grand Théâtre de Genève she soon joined the ensemble of Dusseldorf’s Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she could be heard in several roles including Dorabella ( Così fan tutte ), Annio ( La clemenza di Tito ) and Hänsel ( Hansel and Gretel ). In addition, she sang Sesto ( Giulio Cesare in Egitto ) in Frankfurt and gave her house debut with the Theater an der Wien as Isoletta in Bellini’s La Straniera opposite Edita Gruberová and Marlis Petersen.
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Denzil Delaere, tenor
At the age of six, Denzil Delaere (1988° Belgium) joined the public music academy of Deinze to study piano and saxophone with Daan vandewalle and Stefaan Cornelis. At 14 he entered the School of Art of Ghent where he was taught piano as well as the art of singing (by Philippe Wesemael and Sabine Haenebalcke). He graduated with highest honors in 2008 and was subsequently admitted at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent where he completed his vocal education with Marcos Pujol and Gidon Saks. He graduated from the Conservatory with Master’s degree in 2013.
Currently he’s a member of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth that offers an Opera training study program. In the past he was a member of the Opera Studio Flanders under Guy Joosten within this framework Denzil Delaere sang Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the renowned Summer Opera Festival of Alden-Biesen, 2014 and was engaged as cover for the role at La Monnaie. During the current season he will participate amongst others in Massenet’s obscure opera “Chérubin” for Opéra National de Montpellier and Sam Vloeman’s newly composed opera Babel in a coproduction for Flemish opera and Theater Company Paleis.
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Christian Immler, baritone
With a voice of “warm, noble timbre and great flexibility” (Forum Opéra), German bass-baritone Christian Immler is a multifaceted artist whose career ranges widely across the worlds of lieder, oratorio and opera, “a technically, musically and stylistically consummate interpreter, with exemplary diction and emotional urgency coupled with a deep intellectual textual understanding” (Klassik Heute). He studied with Rudolf Piernay in London and won the International Nadia et Lili Boulanger Competition in Paris.
His operatic experience ranges from Monteverdi’s Seneca, Jupiter in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, the Commendatore and Masetto in Don Giovanni, Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Don Fernando and Rocco in Beethoven’s Leonore, the Hermit in Weber’s Der Freischütz, the Musiklehrer in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos to Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland.
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